Noble Energy donates buses to two Weld school districts

County Commissioner Sean Conway high-fives a student as he walks past one of the new compressed natural gas buses Tuesday morning at Northridge High School in Greeley. Students were also invited to see the environmentally friendly buses.

Dan Kelly, Noble Energy vice president of operations for the DJ Basin, speaks to a crowd of county officials and students Tuesday morning during the presentation of the new compressed natural gas buses at Northridge High School in Greeley. The buses were given to the Greeley-Evans School District 6 and the Valley Re-1 School District as a part of Noble's five year commitment to Weld County Schools.The buses are expected to save the District thousands of dollar each year in fuel.

One of the new compressed natural gas buses pulls out of the parking lot Tuesday morning at Northridge High School after the official unveiling. The new buses will have dramatically lower emissions, lower operating costs and better fuel efficiency.

» Converting one truck from diesel to natural gas is equal to taking 325 cars off the road in terms of pollution reduction.

» Converting 350,000 of the more than two million semi-trucks on the road would create 420,000 jobs directly and 1.2 million indirectly.

Related Media

When Noble Energy talks about partnering with local school districts, executives don’t speak in terms of $500 here or $500 there.

It’s more along the lines of $1 million here, $1 million there.

Dan Kelly , vice president of operations for the DJ Basin region of Noble, made that clear again Tuesday, when he along with other representatives from Noble rolled out seven compressed natural gas school buses they donated to Greeley-Evans School District 6 and the Valley Re-1 School District based in Gilcrest.

“I am continuously reminding our people that we don’t just work here, we live here,” Kelly told a crowd of several dozen gathered for the event at Northridge High School. “We send our kids to school here. We go to church here, and we shop here. We take ownership in this community, and that has allowed us to make a significance in school districts where it is needed.”

The buses, which cost nearly $150,000 each, were the first in a fleet the company plans to roll out to Weld County schools over the next five years.

“When we heard (the budgets of) these districts didn’t allow for the replacement of aging buses, we recognized our opportunity to begin a partnership in CNG buses.”

Noble has pledged $5 million over the next five years to Weld school districts.

District 6 Superintendent Ranelle Lang said she turned to students in the Advanced Placement environmental science course at Northridge High School to get thoughts on what the buses brought to their district. She said some of their answers surprised her.

“They said the obvious like cleaner and gentler on the environment,” Lang said. “But then they said things like, ‘Perhaps it will motivate others by the school district taking the lead to invest in green energy.’ ”

Valley received five buses and Greeley two. In addition to the money from Noble, Valley also received a grant from the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality improvement program to help fund the extra buses.

Valley Superintendent Jo Barbie said they could not have purchased new buses otherwise.

“Due to cuts in state funding, we did not have funds to purchase these buses,” she said. “And we had not purchased a new bus since 2010.”

Noble is also building a filling station near the Valley administration offices at Weld County Road 42 and U.S. 85. Greeley already has a filling station at the Agfinity station on U.S. 85 and 16th Street.

District 6 Board of Eduction Vice President Julia Richard said the buses are an amazing investment in a district that is struggling financially already.

“When you see a bus like this, what an incredible investment. It frees up money to get to kids in the classroom,” Richard said. “But for many of our students, just getting them to school is the No. 1 priority.”